It took Grant Enfinger 45 races to earn his first ARCA Racing Series victory - 45 races in which "racing luck" teased him cruelly so many times. On the way to that win, the Fairhope driver finished second in four races and came in third 10 times. Since breaking through for his first victory in the ARCA Mobile 200 at Mobile International Speedway last year, Enfinger has won three more times - in his past four races.

On Sunday in the Federated Auto Parts 200 at Salem Speedway, Enfinger will try to become the second driver in ARCA's 62-season history to win the first three races of the year.

"Winning one race was really, really difficult, if you didn't realize that," Enfinger said. "It took me like four years to do that.

"I don't know how feasible it is (to win three races in a row), but we're definitely trying. Our goal is another win. It will be incredibly difficult. There are so many guys that will be really, really good there, including a couple of my mentors-slash-heroes. Frank Kimmel and Ken Schrader are going to be there, and they're going to be really, really strong. I think the best thing we can do is keep marching forward like we've been doing, stay on the same game plan and hope for the best."

Enfinger will drive Team BCR Racing's No. 90 Motor Honey-Casite Ford on Sunday at the 0.555-mile speedway in southern Indiana. If he can put it in Victory Lane, Enfinger would join Ramo Scott as the only drivers to win the first three ARCA races of the year. Scott won the first three races of 1970 on the way to the first of his back-to-back ARCA season championships.

"I'm obviously really, really excited about how everything is going," Enfinger said. "Overall, I've got to pinch myself a little bit because we're not doing anything differently. Things are falling our way a little bit where we kind of got used to them going the other way for so long. I'm really pumped about getting to Salem this weekend and, hopefully, we can keep the momentum building and keep rolling forward."

Team BCR is not a big-budget race outfit. Despite his success, Enfinger can't state with certainty if he'll be entered in all 20 ARCA races this season. Since running the full ARCA schedule in 2011 and finishing fourth in the season standings, Enfinger has made 16 ARCA starts.

"It's still hard to say what the future holds for us for the rest of the year," Enfinger said, "so until we know anything for sure we're kind of running every race like it's our last. I do feel confident we'll be running a good many times this year, but from that standpoint, we're not points racing at this point in the season. That kind of allows us to use the same game plan we've been using for really the last year -- just kind of go for broke and hope for the best. Hopefully, it pays off, and if it doesn't, we went down trying."

Before Enfinger, Jimmy Horton in 1990 was the most recent ARCA driver to open the season with two victories. Enfinger has won the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway and the Mobile ARCA 200 at Mobile International Speedway this season. The 2.5-mile World Center of Speed is obviously a much different track than the Irvington oval. But Enfinger said Mobile International and Salem Speedway don't have much in common either, other than being half-mile tracks.

"(Salem) is very, very mean," Enfinger said. "The best way to explain it to somebody who's never been there is probably that it's an old, worn-out, rougher version of Bristol. It's really, really high-banked. It's really bumpy. It's really abrasive, and it just eats cars. For one thing, it's kind of a one-groove track for the most part, so it seems like when somebody wrecks, it's really hard to get out of it."

Don't take from that description that Enfinger dislikes Salem, even though his 22nd-place finish there in 2011 derailed his season-championship chances.

"It's really, really fun," he said of the track. "It's not like anywhere else you race, really. You have to experience it. It's pretty crazy."

Enfinger won at Daytona on Feb. 15 and at Mobile on March 22. After a five-week gap, the ARCA Racing Series visits Salem on Sunday and Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday for the International Motorsports Hall of Fame 200, then goes to Toledo Speedway on May 18. Enfinger does more than drive for Team BCR. He also works in the shop in Mooresville, N.C., preparing the cars, including those used by teammate Justin Allison, the grandson of Alabama Gang legend Donnie Allison.

"We've been working really, really hard here during our break," Enfinger said. "And we needed it from a team standpoint trying to get some cars turned back around. We've done a lot of work on Justin Allison's two cars. We're doing some stuff for him at Talladega and Toledo, so we needed the time for that.

"As a driver, man, I'm anxious to get back out there."

Enfinger will roll off second beside fastest qualifier Justin Boston when the race starts at 1:15 p.m. Sunday.